HUB · TIER 1 · UPDATED AUGUST 2026
Fort Lauderdale for green yacht crew: when to arrive, where to stay, who hires
- Best window
- September to November
- Passport
- US visa in your passport first
- Daywork rate
- USD 150 to 200 a day
- Nearest hubs
- Newport, St Maarten
Fort Lauderdale
United States, Florida
Best windowSeptember to November
PassportUS visa in your passport first
Hub pageChapter 06Newport
United States, Rhode Island
Best windowMay to October
PassportUS visa in your passport first
Hub pageChapter 06Antibes
France
Best windowMarch to May
PassportSchengen visa or exemption
Hub pageChapter 06Palma
Spain, Mallorca
Best windowMarch to May
PassportSchengen visa or exemption
Hub pageChapter 06
Second tier: St Maarten, Antigua, Viareggio, Auckland, Sydney, Dubai, San Diego. Cape Town for cheaper certificates.
Crew houses here cluster in a tight pocket around SE 17th Street. Harbordale and SE 21st Street hold Crew Castle and The Neptune Group. Croissant Park, a mile west, holds Lauderdale Crew House. SE 12th and 16th Street hold Mary's Crew House and the two now closed hostels. All of it is minutes from Lauderdale Marine Center, the 17th Street marinas and the schools at MPT and PYT. A smaller cluster of furnished rentals marketed at crew sits south in Dania Beach and Hollywood.
What a bed costs in 2026
A shared bunk runs USD 200 to 260 a week. A private room with a shared bathroom runs USD 330 to 360 a week. A private room or a couple's queen with its own bathroom runs USD 360 to 460 a week. A full private house through an operator like Smart Move or Crew Haven runs USD 1,450 to 3,250 a week for a group. SeaPark and Crew Castle post the clearest rate cards. Most of the others quote on enquiry.
September to November is the squeeze
FLIBS runs 28 October to 1 November 2026, and SeaPark's own policy states it plainly: no discounts for two weeks either side of the show, because every bunk fills with crew hunting a boat before it opens. Book weeks ahead, expect full rate, and expect a deposit. SeaPark's is USD 215 in cash with 48 hours notice to leave.
The visa is the whole game here
Crew houses ask about your visa because immigration does. Fort Lauderdale is the easiest US entry point for foreign crew, because the border officers here see the B1/B2 constantly. It does not authorise shore work, only work aboard a foreign flagged vessel. Turning up without a plan for that visa is the most common thing that goes wrong for new crew in this town.
Two names that are stale
Floyd's International Youth Hostel and The Chocolate Hostel, both on SE 16th Street, show closed on Yelp this year. Any post recommending either is out of date. Nothing house specific and dated turned up on scams in this sweep, but the standing advice holds. Never wire a deposit to a name that does not match the house, confirm a phone number that is actually answered before sending money, and treat Facebook Marketplace listings and reused Airbnb photos with suspicion.
How crew actually book
Word of mouth and agency referral first, then a direct call, a WhatsApp message or the house's own form. Weekly terms are standard. Nightly stays are usually refused outright.
Where these came from
crewhousefortlauderdale.com, crewcastle.com, seaparkfl.com, theneptunegroup.com, fortlauderdalecrewhouse.com, smartmovecrew.com, crewashore.com, anchoredcrew.com, crewhaven.online, hollywoodvacationrental.com, yachting-pages.com, crewfinders.com, seaworthysecrets.com, mycrewkit.com, Yelp and Hostelworld, all checked 19 August 2026, with the B1/B2 detail from Dockwalk and YPI Crew.
Where crew stay: 15 places, checked 19 August 2026
| Name | Type | Status | From | Min stay | Distance | Booking | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lauderdale Crew HouseOne of the biggest names in the corridor; also rents a full 'Pool house' for up to 11 crew. Site name (crewhousefortlauderdale.com) is easy to confuse with the separate business Fort Lauderdale Crew House (fortlauderdalecrewhouse.com) below. | Crew house | USD 210 a week | 1.4 miles to Lauderdale Marine Center; 0.5 miles to Maritime Professional Training | Website, Phone, WhatsApp | 19 Aug 2026 | ||
| Crew CastleMarkets a '100% Booking Guarantee'. Runs an 11pm noise curfew and zero-drug-tolerance policy, stricter than most competitors. | Crew house | USD 240 a week | Near maritime schools and SE 17th Street marina district (exact distance not published) | Website, Phone, WhatsApp, Email | 19 Aug 2026 | ||
| SeaPark Crew House$15 cash discount off any weekly rate; $215 cash security deposit due on arrival. No discounts for 2 weeks either side of FLIBS. 48-hour written notice required to leave. | Crew house | USD 330 a week | 1 week (no single-night stays) | Four blocks north of SE 17th Street corridor | Website | 19 Aug 2026 | |
| The Neptune GroupOperates roughly a dozen houses near the maritime schools; room types span private/shared bedroom through full houses and studios. No public price list found; a linked but distinct entity, Neptune Crew, is a crew placement agency, not the housing side. Founded 1982. | Crew house | no published rate | Adjacent to maritime schools and crew agencies (exact distance not published) | Website, Phone, Email | 19 Aug 2026 | ||
| Fort Lauderdale Crew House (Peter Pan Enterprises)Six named houses (Peter Pan East/West, Ranch East/West, H2O Property, House on the Hill). Site markets 'flexible daily and weekly rates' but does not publish figures. Note the near-identical name to the unrelated Lauderdale Crew House (crewhousefortlauderdale.com) above. | Crew house | no published rate | Not published; several miles west of the SE 17th Street marina cluster | Website, Phone, Email | 19 Aug 2026 | ||
| Smart Move Crew AccommodationsRuns full furnished apartments and houses rather than shared crew-house beds, priced by the unit/room, useful for crew who want a private lease-free short let rather than a shared bunk room. | Crew house | USD 595 a week | 1 week | Properties advertised as near Lauderdale Marine Center and SE 17th Street Causeway | Website, Phone | 19 Aug 2026 | |
| Crew AshoreOwner-operated (Sam & Guy) since 2020, 12+ years in the industry claimed. No public price list found; quotes given on enquiry. | Crew house | no published rate | Near Lauderdale Marine Center, Maritime Professional Training (MPT) and Professional Yachtsmen's Association (PYT) | Website, WhatsApp, Email, Instagram, Facebook | 19 Aug 2026 | ||
| Anchored Crew HouseSays it houses only yacht crew: guests must show yachting certifications and a commitment to a yachting career. Established 2015. Rooms & Rates and Amenities pages exist on-site but did not return content on this pass. | Crew house | no published rate | Near SE 17th Street (exact distance not published) | Website, Email, Phone | 19 Aug 2026 | ||
| Crew HavenUmbrella operator (previously referenced elsewhere as 'CrewHaven101') running 20+ named houses under one booking desk, including a shared-room budget line called 'Crew Quarters', a different business from the independent crewquarters.com number found in older directories. Says bookings typically finalise 7-10 days before arrival. | Crew house | USD 7,500 a month | Near SE 17th Street marinas and Lauderdale Marine Center | Website, WhatsApp, Email, Instagram, Facebook | 19 Aug 2026 | ||
| Hollywood Vacation Rental (yacht crew houses)General furnished-rental company that markets specifically to yacht crew, corporate clients and maritime students in Hollywood/Dania Beach. Weekly rentals get up to 10% off, monthly up to 25% off; no per-unit prices published. | Short let | no published rate | Serves Hollywood and Dania Beach, a short drive south of the SE 17th Street corridor | Website, Phone, Email | 19 Aug 2026 | ||
| Mary's Crew HouseOne of the longest-running names in Fort Lauderdale crew housing (opened 2003), still cited across multiple current directories, but the operator's own domain refused a direct fetch (flagged by Cloudflare as suspected phishing) so current rates and live status could not be confirmed on this pass. A phone number found on an older Crewfinders reference page (954-242-1109) differs from the number on mycrewkit's listing (954-761-3660), worth confirming before publishing either. | Crew house | Unsure | no published rate | Not published in third-party listings | Phone, Facebook | 19 Aug 2026 | |
| Palm Place ResidenceContact given as Lindsey Cooksey in the Crewfinders reference list. Domain would not resolve when checked directly, so could not confirm the site is still live; still appears as a current listing on independent directories. | Crew house | Unsure | no published rate | Not published | Phone | 19 Aug 2026 | |
| The Bridge at Cordova (hostel)Historically used by budget travellers and some crew. Yelp shows it as closed; Hostelworld's listing page is still live with an 8.2 'Fabulous' score across 131 reviews but the tool could not pull dated recent reviews to confirm it is still trading. Call before relying on it. | Hostel | Unsure | no published rate | Near SE 17th Street corridor | Hostelworld | 19 Aug 2026 | |
| Hostel | ClosedYelp listing marked CLOSED, updated August 2026 | no published rate | Formerly a few minutes' walk from several crew agencies | 19 Aug 2026 | |||
| Hostel | ClosedYelp listing marked CLOSED, updated January 2026 | no published rate | Formerly central to the SE 16th/17th Street crew corridor | 19 Aug 2026 |
Also checked
- Sabra's Crew Accommodation referenced in search-engine summaries with address (SE 14th Ct) and phone, but sabrascrewhouse.com did not resolve (DNS failure) and no independent current listing was found to corroborate it
- Cotton Crews / Cotton Management crew housing cottoncrews.com/crew-housing redirects to cottonmanagement.com, whose crew-housing page is West Palm Beach only (4512 N Flagler Dr, West Palm Beach) with a copyright date of 2022, out of scope for the Fort Lauderdale hub and stale
- Captain's Quarters appears only in an undated Crewfinders reference list (800 SE 12th St, 954-764-7828); no own website or independent current listing found
- LunaSea Apartments appears only in the same undated Crewfinders reference list (404 SE 9th St); no independent current listing found
- Crew Quarters (independent, crewquarters.com) listed with its own phone (954-522-1631) in the Crewfinders reference list, but the name is now also used by Crew Haven for one of its own properties (crewhaven.online/crewquarters), could not confirm whether the original independent business still operates separately or was absorbed
- Newport Little House listed on the Crewfinders reference page but the address given (35 Kingston Ave, Newport, RI 02840) is in Newport, Rhode Island, not Fort Lauderdale, out of scope for this hub
Checked by hand on 19 August 2026. Prices move, houses fill and owners change; confirm the rate and the deposit terms in writing before you pay anything. If a listing here is wrong, email ahoy@joinyachting.com and it will be fixed within a week.
Who hires here
AgenciesBluewater, Luxury Yacht Group, Crewfinders International, Northrop and Johnson, Blue Oceans Yachting, formerly Crew Unlimited. Register with every one in your hub, then go and stand in front of them.
Job boardsYotspot, DayWork123.
Straight answers
When should I arrive in Fort Lauderdale?
Early September. The hub peaks September to November as boats crew up for the Caribbean run, and FLIBS on 28 October to 1 November 2026 is the busiest fortnight of the year.
What does a crew house cost in Fort Lauderdale?
A shared bunk runs USD 200 to 260 a week. A private room with a shared bathroom runs USD 330 to 360 a week, and a private room or a couple's queen with its own bathroom runs USD 360 to 460. Full private houses for groups run USD 1,450 to 3,250 a week.
Do I need a visa to work in Fort Lauderdale?
Yes. Non US crew need a B1/B2 visa to work aboard a yacht in US waters, and that includes daywork, paid or unpaid. It does not authorise shore work. Turning up without a plan for that visa is the most common thing that goes wrong here.